Major businesses with nationwide distribution may have many stores across the country (or world-wide) and sell a broad range of products. Because each store is different, the location of products within each store typically varies, for instance, on different shelves or aisles. As new products are added, discontinued, moved, and/or prices change, the signs and tags on the shelves or aisles must be routinely changed. Signs and tags may be changed multiple times a week.
It can take quite a few people several hours a day to change all the signs or price tags in a store. Usually “shells” for the signs or tags are pre-printed, such as by offset printing, in monochrome and perforated and shipped to the store. Once the signs or tags arrive at the store, they can be torn on the perforation by hand, as well as manually sorted, organized into order, and placed into sign holders.
Businesses would like to produce signs which are more appealing to customers, as well as make the print production process more cost effective. In addition, businesses, especially with multiple locations, are looking for more efficient and faster methods for obtaining signage for their stores.